[Trigger Warning: State violence, Disappearance]
Vivos los llevaron, vivos los queremos: In solidarity with the #Ayotzinapa43
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2024
WPLC Remembers and Stands in Solidarity with the #Ayotzinapa43
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the forced disappearance of the Ayotzinapa 43. The Water Protector Legal Collective continues to stand in solidarity with the families and communities of the Ayotzinapa 43 students. We hold their memories and their families in our hearts and prayers, and will continue fighting for truth and justice.
On the night of September 26, 2014, 43 unarmed Indigenous students were forcibly disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, México. These students, enrolled at the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College, were preparing to attend the commemoration of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre, where hundreds of student protesters were killed by government forces in Mexico City.
The Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College is part of a network of schools established to serve underserved rural areas, aimed at creating social change. While the precise details surrounding their disappearance remain unclear, the events resulted in the death of six individuals and more than 25 people being injured.
On August 18, 2022, a truth commission (Comisión para la Verdad y Acceso a la Justicia del Caso Ayotzinapa, COVAJ) revealed that the students were victims of "state-sponsored crime," implicating high-ranking officials and military forces in a long-standing cover-up. Contrary to previous reports that suggested the students had been taken to the Cocula landfill and incinerated, the commission found that the 43 students were separated and taken to different locations. Evidence also pointed to the direct involvement of Colonel José Rodríguez Pérez in the killing of six students days after their initial disappearance.
Key arrests followed the report. In August 2022, former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam was arrested for his role in enforced disappearances, torture, and obstruction of justice in the Ayotzinapa case. The Mexican government issued additional arrest warrants, including those for Tomás Zerón, former head of the Criminal Investigation Agency, who fled to Israel, evading extradition attempts by the Mexican government. In September 2022, retired General José Rodríguez Pérez was also arrested, along with members of the Mexican army, further highlighting the military's role in the students' disappearance.
Despite these legal actions, the Ayotzinapa 43's families and the international community continue to demand accountability and justice. Their disappearance remains emblematic of state violence and impunity in México. Human rights organizations around the world continue to call for a thorough and transparent investigation.
On the 10th anniversary of this tragedy, we reiterate our solidarity with the parents and families of the Ayotzinapa students. In 2021, the Water Protector Legal Collective, in collaboration with TONATIERRA, submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information to hold the U.S. and Mexican governments accountable for any knowledge or involvement in the case. Former Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador indicated he received files from the United States regarding the investigation of the 2014 Ayotzinapa disappearances after a virtual meeting with Vice President Harris on May 7, 2021. Nevertheless, a decade later, the families of the Ayotzinapa students are still waiting for meaningful responses. The FOIA efforts by WPLC and Tonatierra are still ongoing.
WPLC Executive Director, Natali Segovia, reflected on this dark anniversary: “For our relatives in the Global South, across Mexico and Latin America, the disappearance of the Ayotzinapa 43 is part of a pain we know all too well. The targeting, disappearance and threats to those that take a stand, is part of the historical silencing that our people have experienced. But there’s something that I remember when the pain is too much to bear–words that I learned in marches and rallies in the Andes–Somos semilla, somos memoria, somos el sol que renace ante la impunidad. We are seeds, we are memory, we are the sun that rises again in the face of impunity. It’s up to us to remember, it’s up to us to stand.”
For a decade, the families have been denied the justice and truth they deserve. The students from Ayotzinapa rural school are part of the largest mass disappearance in modern Mexico history, and part of the over 110,000 who have been reported missing or disappeared in the last 50 years.
The cry of "¡Vivos los llevaron, vivos los queremos!"—"They were taken alive, we want them back alive"—remains as urgent as ever. We will not forget.
For more information on the #Ayotzinapa43 case, visit: revealnews.org/podcast/after-ayotzinapa-arrests-and-intrigue
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